


The Day Will Not Save Them, And We Own The Night

by NostramosRevenge



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Alternate Heresy, Gen, Horus Heresy, Night Lords
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 09:18:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13521222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NostramosRevenge/pseuds/NostramosRevenge
Summary: This is an AU heresy where Konrad Curze leads the Traitor Legions rather than Horus. The story is similar to the original but different. Primarchs will die that didn't in the original. The divergence from canon occurs right after the incident on Cheraut.





	1. Chapter 1

The _Nightfall_ hurled its way through the warp towards Nostramo. Thousands of claws scratched at the ship's Gellar field, sensing the prey aboard. In his dark quarters, Curze sat with his tarot deck, dismayed to find the same pattern repeating. Shuffling the deck once more, he suddenly fell to the ground convulsing and screaming. The Atramentar outside his room paid it no mind; Curze's visions were never a peaceful process, especially while in the warp.

This vision was different from the others Curze had seen. He saw his brother Horus, newly appointed Warmaster, cut down by a loathsome creature with a strange blade. He saw Horus fall. He saw Horus dying. Then, he saw the impossible. Horus alive and well. Horus led his troops to battle — against other space marines.

Curze saw himself meeting with several of his brothers, all of them blocked from his view by a massive hologram. Curze sat on a throne with a large skull in his hands while the brothers assembled before him watched the hologram intently. It was a hologram of the Imperial Palace. One primarch stepped forward, revealing his face as Perturabo's. Perturabo pressed some buttons on the holodisplay, and holograms of troops began assaulting the Palace.

Waking with a start, Curze knew something was wrong before Shang even said it.

"A warp storm is blocking our path, sire. The astropath estimates _Nightfall_ won't make it to Nostramo for another week."

"A week? We should have been there days ago."

"Apparently it's a very nasty storm, sire."  
Curze retired back to his quarters to rest. Visions came at a cost. Shuffling the deck one last time, Curze saw a legionnaire standing silently near the door. It was Shang.

"Begone, Shang. I must rest."

Shang did not move.

Curze was no longer aboard the _Nightfall_. He stood on some world unknown to him, the night full of stars. Looking at the stars, he knew where he might be within the galaxy, but he'd never been here before. Shang stood nearby, his helm's lenses seeming to kill the light around it in a black aura while also producing a bright white light, giving an overall gray shine. Shang spoke, but the voice was not Shang's. It was the rustling of leaves on a cold night.

"Konrad Curze, you play a pivotal role in the future of the galaxy. I can grant you the power to decide what role that will be. I will show you what will happen if you accept and if you refuse."

Curze was just about to start raging at whatever warpspawn had done this to him when he moved. He was underground now. Near him stood Mortarion and Horus, as well as several of Horus's sons. They spoke, but the words made no sound to Curze. It wasn't their speech that Curze was there to witness. Curze felt the disgusting warp energies pulsing through Horus as if he were smelling a rancid corpse. It sickened him. Then Mortarion kneeled before him. Aghast at seeing Mortarion of all the primarchs bending the knee to the warp, Curze began to shout.

"What matter of trickery is this, warpspawn?"

Suddenly Curze was transported again. He saw Lorgar chanting and Angron becoming...something beyond words. Something that shouldn't exist. Curze felt the warp energy burning through Angron like a furnace. Lorgar was weaving the warp around him and into Angron. The sky was raining blood. Two more brothers corrupted by the warp.

Curze was transported several more times, seeing Fulgrim become possessed, Sanguinius defeated by a daemon, Lion consorting with a daemon encased in some engine, Magnus swearing his soul to some God of the warp, and Guilliman starting an empire. Curze saw those treacheries, and then he saw the Emperor at the same portal Horus had used. Then he saw the Night Lords attacking some hive world, demented by the warp's influence. He saw Krieg Acerbus as a massive daemon. Then he saw himself, grappling a demon through the warp and falling into madness.

Curze screamed his throat raw at the visions before him and attempted once more to blind himself. The thing that was not Shang stopped him.

"You see, Konrad, what happens if you refuse me. You and your brothers and humanity fall to the warp's influence. To Chaos."

Curze stood. For a long moment his face contorted as his mind was tossed about. Then he sneered at the warpspawn.

"I don't believe you."

"You will. Then you will help me defeat Chaos.

"What are you?"

Curze's voice dripped a mixture of sarcasm and empathy, but the rustled leaves voice remained calm and flat.

"A warp being, as you've stated, but _different_."

Shang's eyes glowed a more intense gray now.

"I represent the wish to return the warp to its former state. Before Chaos."

Curze now stood on the deck of a ship, looking out into the warp. But, it was different. Calmer. More like a placid lake than a stormy ocean. No sinister half-figures, no discomforting sensation. Just serenity. The kind he'd known on the silent nights of Nostramo.

"Mankind as well as the other species throughout the galaxy, through their disorder, have corrupted the warp. It's up to you to restore it. The Emperor of Mankind must be defeated so you can replace him as the Dark King of Man. I can grant you the power to overthrow him. But, you must take it."

Curze stared the entity down, resisting the urge to attack it.

"No."

"No? You condemn the galaxy to lawlessness and chaos!"

"The Imperium is bringing order to this galaxy. You lie!" Curze roared, swiping at whatever daemon inhabited Shang's body.

Suddenly Curze was on Nostramo. Shang was nowhere to be seen. Looking around, Curze spotted a man stab another and steal coins from his pockets. Running towards the attacker, Curze was transported to a rape, then another crime and another, on and on. Curze stopped running and watched the depraved crimes of people who'd lost any fear of consequences. After several more terrible crimes, Shang stood next to Curze.

"A murder every 11 seconds. A rape every 9. Violent crime is increasing exponentially every month while suicides are doubling every year."

Curze looked on in horror, seeing his life's work so terribly undone before him.

"Nostramo won't last more than a few years at this rate, Curze."

"Imagine this on a galactic scale. The whole of humanity condemned to anarchy and Chaos. You can change it."

Curze sat down on a nearby ledge, head in his hands. He and Shang now were on the top of a nearby building, not that Curze noticed.

"This is what will become of my father's Imperium?" Curze lifted his head, desperation in his eyes. "Lawlessness and Chaos?"

"Unless you accept my offer, yes."


	2. Chapter 2

Nostramo.

Curze looked at the world spinning in front of him, and felt no regrets about its fate.

"Open fire." The Nightfall and its fleet had come out of the warp far sooner than expected. While the journey had taken far longer in the warp than it should have, it had only taken a few minutes in realspace.

Curze had ordered Nostramo destroyed as a warning to the Night Lords. No more corruption in his ranks. He executed dozens of Night Lords and ordered that more recruits be obtained from the various worlds the Night Lords still held. They would have to move fast before the Emperor began trying to destroy them. As the new recruits were being processed, Curze called for all of his captains and close advisors to meet him aboard Nightfall.

Curze told them of the warp entity's proposal. He told them that the galaxy would be doomed to Chaos and lawlessness should he refuse. That his brothers would fall to Chaos, and that the Emperor already consorted with Chaos. Most importantly, he told them that he'd accepted the offer. The Night Lords were silent.

"Now go, my sons. Tell your brothers of what is to come. We will save humanity from its own nature. We will bring peace. We will bring justice. And most importantly," Curze looked into the eyes of every Night Lord there, "we will bring down the Emperor."

The Night Lords redoubled their training. There were new methods designed to fight Astartes, not humans. In particular, the Ultramarine's tactical coordination made them exceptionally predictable. The Night Lords would have the upper hand. While this training was carried out, Curze took a small ship to the place he saw in his visions: the moon of Davin.

As the Mournival was bringing Horus to the temple, Curze slipped from the shadows. All he needed was to make contact with Horus so that the warpspawn could speak to him and heal him. Curze had asked how it planned to bring Horus to his side. It showed him Horus being forgotten if he stood by the Emperor and Horus being utterly obliterated if he led the revolt. Curze knew Horus's ego would be his downfall.

"What are you doing here?!" Abaddon was frightened by the possibility of Horus dying. Curze could almost taste it. The others were as well, but none so strongly as Abaddon. Curze said nothing, and pressed his hand to Horus.

Waking up hours later, Curze found himself alone with Horus. Horus sighed deeply, and told Curze that he would join him. It all came down to the Istvaan system, where the heresy was to be fully declared.

Finding legions to join the rebellion was not difficult. Mortarion was easily swayed because of his loyalty to Horus and hatred of sorcery. Fulgrim was shown visions of himself as a revolting monster and being possessed by a daemon and quickly sided against chaos. Angron needed only to hear about the plot to join it. Perturabo, bitter that he had been so overlooked and so mistreated, joined immediately. The Alpha Legion agreed to the plot before being informed of it. Had it been any other legion, that might have been suspicious. The Word Bearers, learning that the Emperor had spoken to the warp gods and still denied their existence, were eager to avenge Monarchia. Nearly half the legions had agreed to the heresy. They had the forces they would need.

Using his position as Warmaster, Horus unleashed the might of four legions on Istvaan III. The Emperor's Children, Death Guard, Sons of Horus, and World Eaters all began launching their drop pods. As the virus bomb was prepared, Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard raced to the surface to warn the doomed space marines. Knowing what would happen should the invasion force be allowed to know of their treachery, Curze and Horus were sure to stop Garro from reaching the surface. His craft was hit hard on the way, making it impossible for his craft to enter the planet's atmosphere and be able to exit it. Garro decided it was more important to warn the Imperium than the survivors and hurled his damaged craft into the warp, barely holding together.

The virus bombing proceeded as planned. However, there were some survivors. Many had been sheltered from the attack die to fighting in catacombs and sewers beneath the city. Angron rushed to the surface to purge the survivors while Horus reluctantly joined.

The traitors quickly regrouped at Istvaan V when word came of an approaching fleet. From the void came the ships of the Raven Guard, Salamanders, and Iron Hands. The loyalists made planetfall and immediately assaulted the traitors. At the height of the battle, Fulgrim faced off against Ferrus Manus. Fulgrim moved like a dancer, dashing around Ferrus and easily avoiding his massive hammer swings. Ferrus was no amateur though, guarding himself against Fulgrim's slashes and stabs. The momentum shifted constantly.

Fulgrim blocked a massive swing down at his head, then spun into a slash that Ferrus dodged. Fulgrim lowered his sword. Ferrus swing the hammer in a mighty arc, aiming right at Fulgrim's face. Fulgrim leapt forward past Ferrus's guard and swiped his sword in a horizontal slash. Fulgrim heard the sound of metal and flesh hitting the ground and spun to grab Ferrus's head before it hit the ground.

Retreating back to their dropsite, the loyalist cheered as they saw their reinforcements. The Night Lords and Word Bearers, they knew, saw this battle as a chance at redemption for their failures. The mysterious Alpha Legion was always eager to prove itself the equal of its older brother legions. They would not fail. The Iron Warriors were known to the legions as the breakers of the unbreakable. No army could resist their advances. They were all legions worthy to be their reinforcements and the loyalists knew it. They knew it right up until their reinforcements began mowing them down.

In an instant, the weary loyalists were back in battle. The legions under Horus's command swept back into the battle, shedding any signs of fatigue from the battle. Caught between the two forces, the loyalists were slaughtered wholesale.  
Curze took to the battlefield like a vicious murderer. Around him the ground was muddy with blood and gore. He saw in the distance Lorgar and Corax fighting. Corax stabbed Lorgar in the chest and heaved upwards, almost a killing blow. Curze made his way towards the fight. 

**Author's Note:**

> The statistics about Nostramo's crime rate are from the Dark King novella.


End file.
